Time Pressure And Creativity

Time pressure is something that we all experience in our workplaces in nearly everyday and it is generally looked upon as an unnecessary pressure along with all the other business challenges that we have to face.

As a business leader, you will know that in our business lives, the time pressure often seems to result from external causes, from having too much work assigned, or from some real lack of clock time, or from the relentless flow of time itself.

However, there is evidence to show that the feeling of time pressure depends on our perspective.

There is an old adage: ‘A watched pot never boils.’ This means that if you are anxiously waiting for something to happen, you may be waiting for water to boil, or for a stoplight to turn from red to green, time will actually seem to perversely slow down. When we take a position apart from what is happening, it seems to affect the way time is experienced.

Recent research has indicated that time pressure has a very important impact on business creativity,

Time pressure increases the creative output. By forcing idea production, setting goals and incremental deadlines, a greater number of business ideas are produced than if you don’t have time pressure.

Forcing output pushes individuals along the experience curve; it refines their methods, builds their competencies and improves their overall performance.

Motivation is critical to creativity and time pressure causes motivation.

Your management team and employees, motivated by the time pressure you put on them will produce a level of creative business ideas that will help your business succeed.

So, in your business leader role, as you go about your busy day with all the business challenges that you are trying to face, just remember that even though you are feeling the pressure, time is on your side. Yes it is.